Remittances to rise again this year

The volume of remittances from overseas Vietnamese may surge again this year, bankers have said.

Tran
Xuan Huy, CEO of Sacombank, said in the first six months of 2011, total
remittances via the bank had amounted to 800 million USD, a
year-on-year increase of 3 percent.

He said Sacombank expects to
reach profits of 10 billion VND (500,000 USD) from remittance services
this year, compared with 3-4 billion VND in 2010.

Remittances via
ACB's Western Union centre in the first half of the year rose by 8
percent over last year, and the figure is expected to increase to 10
percent for the entire year.

"Remittances from overseas
Vietnamese are expects to increase in the second half of the year. That
is when they remit money for their families for the Tet (Lunar New Year)
holiday," said Tran Cong Binh, head of ACB's Western Union Centre.

Meanwhile,
the Dong A Bank's remittance centre expected that the target of a
year-on-year increase of 20 percent in overseas Vietnamese remittances
in 2011 would help the bank take the lead in receiving remittances this
year.

Last year, Dong A received total remittances of 1.2 billion USD, 20 percent higher than 2009's figure.

According
to the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Nguyen Van Giau,
Vietnam has 55,000 guest workers working abroad, who earn from 1.8
billion USD to 2 billion USD per year.

As for some 3 million
overseas Vietnamese live abroad, Giau said they remitted at least 6.5
billion USD per year in the past five years.

Overseas Vietnamese's remittances have provided a significant source of foreign currency to Vietnam's economy, said Giau.

With promotional campaigns launched recently by local banks, remittance flow to

Vietnam this year is expected to exceed 8 billion USD, the same rate as in 2010./.